By Gavin Boyle
California has passed a new law that will make streaming more enjoyable as ads on streaming platforms now have to play at the same sound level as the shows around them.
“This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who’s finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work,” said State Senator Thomas Umber, a co-sponsor of the bill. “SB 576 brings some much-needed peace and quiet to California households by making sure streaming ads aren’t louder than the shows we actually want to watch.”
“We hear Californians loud and clear, and what’s clear is that they don’t want commercials at a volume louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program,” added California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Related: ‘Just Getting Started’: Netflix Reaches 70 Million Users on Ad-Supported Tier
The law brings streaming advertisements in line with broadcast TV which has had the same type of restriction in place at a federal level since 2010.
Until recent years, this type of law has been less necessary for streaming as ad-supported streaming was not even an option on most platforms until the end of 2022. Since then, though, many consumers have chosen to subscribe to ad tiers to maintain access to their favorite platforms while mitigating some of the cost. This summer, Netflix revealed that half of its new subscribers now choose their ad-supported tier, over a premium account.
“As we celebrate two years since launching Netflix’s ads business, we continue to see positive momentum and growth across all areas of the business. We’re excited to now reach 70MM monthly active users globally and continue to see steady progress across all countries’ base member bases,” Netflix said last November.
After over a decade without ads on the platform, Netflix chose to add the option when it realized that many people were choosing not to subscribe to the site because of the cost.
“We’ve left a big customer segment off the table, which is people who say: ‘Hey, Netflix is too expensive for me and I don’t mind advertising,” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said in June 2022 when explaining why the streamer added an ad tier. “We added an ad tier; we’re not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say, ‘Hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads.’”
As the industry has followed Netflix’s lead and every major platform has added ads onto their sites, it is encouraging to see lawmakers enact new laws to smooth out the experience – in the same way as they did for broadcast TV.
Read Next: Amazon Prime Video’s Ads to Become More Invasive
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